SUMMARY
Background: There is little knowledge about possible trajectories of chronic pain development, especially in relation to other common symptoms (sleep and vitality). By analysing patients’ medical records and other available clinical data, we aimed to identify specific developmental patterns of pain and other symptoms and to explore possible differences between such groups of patients.Methods: We included 487 consecutive patients aged 18+ years who attended the specialist outpatient clinic for chronic non-malignant pain for rehabilitation from February until November 2019. We used 16 binary descriptors to characterise symptom development. Participants completed two questionnaires about pain. We used clinically available data on previous and concurrent medical conditions, motor ability tests, body mass index, medication, and socioeconomic status.Results: The majority of the participants reported persistent low-back pain occurring first. One-third of them reported an estimated duration of daily pain below 5 years; 16% reported it to be over 20 years. Only one-third of the participants reported no concomitant headache. Hierarchical clustering based on descriptors identified three distinct groups; the fourth group consisted of those with an unclear history. The data on concomitant diseases revealed a wide array of diagnoses not usually associated with pain syndromes.Conclusion: Based on the patients’ medical histories, we uncovered some possible trajectories of chronic pain syndrome development in relation to basic symptoms (widespread pain, headache, physical or mental fatigue, sleep disorders). Improving the understanding of chronic pain development could contribute to discovering the key pathophysiological mechanisms and to more targeted, effective, and earlier interventions in its treatment.